amorphous ornament

Assignment 2 will make a presentation screen for the ornament blocks from the first assignment.
For this project we will attempt to use the Laser cutter at Technopark.
It can cut thin metal sheet, plastic sheet, and thin wood or cardboard.

The final product should display the blocks in a novel, interesting, and appropriate way. The mounting system can take advantage of the windows in the PC lab (143x264 cm) but this is not specifically required.

The goal of this assignment is to demonstrate the possibilities and limitations of this second form of CNC production, and to get you thinking about the act of making 3d strucures out of 2d cuttings. Concepts to explore are folding, bending, perforation, intersections, and of course the final ornamented aesthetic of the project.

Deliverables for Wednesday Dec 8th are drawings, sketches, 3d models, or digital files,... whatever you need to communicate your idea.

The final project will be a group work, and should be able to be produced in one day.

Groups
Design:
Vanessa Borkmann, Christina Ritigelman, Caroline Ting, Jörg Hillesheim

Fabrication:
Felix Siegrist, Johann Reble, Carolina Mojto, Dominique Meier, Jonas Grob

Organization:
Mathias Bernhard, Ingmar Kurtz, Simone Renfer, Anna Flueckiger

The third part of assignment 1 is to begin programming with MEL to create surfaces.

1. Examine the 3 surfaces you have already milled.
2. Identify a “unique characteristic” from the surface:
- a pattern in the layers of plywood
- look for a motif, pattern, or ornamental feature
- a pattern that is a result of the geometry & the material
- some unique identifying aesthetic characteristic that can be used as part of a overall design
3. Analyze the feature and determine how to recreate its geometry or features
4. Experiment with MEL and MAYA to determine how to PROGRAM the characteristics onto a surface
5. Refine your program using logical statements and variables.
6. Turn your script into a PROCEDURE
7. Execute the procedure a number of times to create the final set of surfaces to be milled.
8 Process the surfaces using SurfCAM^?
9 Mill the surfaces.

The goal for this assignment is to make the translation of a modeled surface, into a programmed surface and get you familiar with making a MEL – Procedure.
The final product of the complete assignment 1 (a, b, & c) should be a set 12 milled surfaces. With 9 of the surfaces being generated from a single MEL code.
The surfaces and scripts are DUE for presentation on Dec 1 in the milling lab. At this time each student will also present their MEL script and demonstrate how it works to create the ornamented-milled surfaces.

The second assignment is to process one of your MAYA surfaces and get it ready for the CNC mill.

1. Choose a surface that doesn't have any UNDERCUTS

2. Subdivide the surface IN MAYA using the detach surfaces tool

2. Export the surface to surfCAM

3. Process the surface with both Rough and fine cuts.

3. Post and save the G-code

The goal for this assignment is to get familiar with SurfCAM^? and preparing surface forms for output to the mill.

The final product of the assignment should be a set opf G-code files for the Precix 3 axis CNC mill.

The results from this assignment are DUE for the morning workshop on Nov 3, and are required to proceed on to the third part of the assignment.

The first assignment is to simply get on the MAYA software and try to make some surfaces.
There are 3 specific ways to create a NURBS surface:

1. Create > NURBS Primitives > Plane

2. Create a series of lines or splines, then use the "LOFT" tool to generate a surface


3. Create a set of parallel and connected lines (splines / rails) and use the "BI-RAIL" tool to generate a surface

The goal for this assignment is to get familiar with MAYA and creating surface forms.

The final product of the assignment should be at minimum 3 different surface geometries that have been create using one of each of the above methods.

The results from this assignment are DUE for the morning workshop on Oct 29, and are required to proceed on to the second assignment 1b).